The tourbillon mechanism, invented by Abraham Louis Breguet as a way to off-set the effects of gravity on a pocket watch’s movement, disappeared in the age of wristwatches until prestige brands began reviving it as an exclusive marker of horological dexterity in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, back in 1947 Omega experimented with the idea as a way to improve accuracy for chronometer watches it entered in the timing competitions that were a mainstay of the watch industry back then.

It made 12 such watches – but this year an unknown prototype model appeared, confirmed as the very first tourbillon wristwatch ever made.

Made long before Omega had the merest inkling of strapping watches to astronauts or to James Bond, it sold at Phillips Geneva for CHF 1,428,500 (£1.1m), becoming the most expensive Omega ever.